Repast

Decadence. Performance. The art of presentation.

Could the French have created fine dining without the extravagnce at Louis XIV’s court?

I think not.

One rarely reads 17th-century French references about food at court that do not emphasize the extravagant festivals and shows (entertainment) that encompassed each meal.  In January 1700, Madame la Chancelière gave a ball in honor of the Duchesse de Bourgogne.  Joan DeJean explains the evening’s “dinner theater component: five of the kinds of stands at which fairgoers paused for refreshment while shopping the Foire Saint-Germain had been faithfully reconstructed.”  Mme la Chancelière recreated Parisian food shops.  She even had an actor at each store front façade who played the role of its owner.

In 1674, a professional chef wrote L’Art de bien traiter (The Art of Fine Entertaining).  The anonymous L.S.R. outlined methods for hosting the most fabulous feasts.  The book is more of a manual for the maître d’hotel than a cookbook.  He paid an incredible amount of attention to the presentation of food - everything from the arrangement of food on the plate and on the table to the process of serving each meal.  He outlined a report on the elaborate way of serving a meal, known as “service à la française.”  In French service, platters are spread out in the middle of the table and guests serve themselves.  You’re able to try several different dishes.  In The Essence of Style, Joan DeJean describes French service:

Initially, French service was an orchestrated ritual that dictated with absolute precision both the order in which courses were served and the symmetrical arrangement on the table of the dishes that composed each course.  […]  The banquet’s quality was judged both by the way in which all the different dishes in each course, as well as those in all the different courses, worked together, and by the geometrical pattern formed by the arrangement of dishes on the table.

Salicorne: a Product of Brittany's Salty Marshes

Clotilde from http://chocolateandzucchini.com/ wrote an interesting post last week about salicorne, a vegetable easy-to-find in Brittany.  She describes it as being "not quite a vegetable but not quite a seaweed."  It's incredible what Breton maritime traditions have contributed to cuisine!  Now, my curiosity is killing me!  I have to find salicorne asap and try it.  It grows along the seashore and salty marshes of Brittany and is harvested in early spring-late summer.  Clotilde describes how her mother would add pickled salicorne to salads during their stays in Brittany. 

The "flavour guy" at montrealfood.com describes salicorne as the "taste of summer by the sea."  He explains that it's slightly salty without being overpowering and that it has an herbal taste.  Apparently, many chefs serve it steamed under fish or fried in butter or olive oil.  Either way sounds delicious to me.  Could I find this salicorne in NYC?? 

Seaweed in Brittany

I am totally obsessed with those rich sablés Breton that I tried while in Pont-Aven.  They are the most delicious butter cookies I’ve ever had. 

What’s the secret?  Is it perhaps the salted butter that they use?  Surrounded by beautiful coasts, Brittany is known for its grey sea salt (sel gris) and fleur de sel.  At Formaggio Essex we sell fleur de sel from Ile de Ré. 

After munching on these sablés, I tried an intriguing and very unique cookie made with raisins, oats, and SEAWEED!  I knew that seaweed was commonly used in much of Breton cuisine but I had no idea to what extent.  Bretons have been collecting seaweed for centuries.  It’s traditionally used while boiling water to create a sauce.  A drive along the Côte des Abers seems to pay tribute to the cultural importance of the local seaweed-gathering industry in Brittany.  I would recommend making at least 2 stops along the drive: Plouguerneau (écomusée des goémoniers – museum of the local seaweed-gathering industry) and the Aber Wrac’h Harbor.  You could see the seaweed gatherers going out to sea and chopping the seaweed up with mincing machines and bringing them into port to dry.   

I typed “Brittany Seaweed” into google and was surprised at the number of sites that I saw either discussing Breton seaweed or selling it: dried seaweed salad, mustard with 3 seaweeds, Breton sea salt with seaweed, and even a bar of soap with red Breton seaweed.  One site even mentioned seaweed cooking classes in Plouguerneau! 

Europe’s largest seaweed port is located in Lanildut, a town in Brittany on the Côte des Abers.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the seaweed harvesting industry in Brittany dated back to the Celtics.